1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of controlling the cooking operation of a microwave oven using a code system, and more particularly to such control apparatus and method wherein a desired cooking is simply and conveniently carried out in an optimum state in accordance with a cooking code having of numerals or characters which are input by a user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Microwave ovens are well known as a cooking appliance that changes electricity into microwaves, thereby directly heating foods. Recently, a microwave oven having a multi-function has been proposed which additionally includes a heater adapted to directly change electricity into heat so as to have an additional function expected in a grill, oven or steamer.
Developments of such a multi-function microwave oven not only result from the demands of the multimedia times to obtain a variety of functions from a single appliance, but also result from developments of a variety of instant foods according to the demands of consumers to obtain convenience, simplicity and rapidity in use.
Such a multi-function microwave oven can be used not only in homes where a cooking appliance can be installed, but also in any place a necessary space for occupying the microwave oven is given and electricity is supplied, as in offices or supermarkets. In this regard, the use of such a multi-function microwave may extend greatly in the future.
In a conventional microwave oven shown in FIG. 1A, the cooking of food is carried out under the control of a microcomputer included in the microwave oven in accordance with a cooking mode and a cooking time both set by the user. That is, a desired cooking key is first selected for cooking the food (Step 1), as shown in FIG. 1B. A cooking time is then set by pressing numeral keys (Step 2). Thereafter, a cooking start key is depressed to input a cooking start key signal (Step 3). In response to the cooking start key signal, the microcomputer controls the microwave oven or heater to carry out a desired cooking operation for the set cooking time in the set cooking mode.
In such a conventional microwave oven, an automatic cooking mode is also used. For such an automatic cooking mode, the microwave oven is stored with data about a certain number of cooking menus which are preferred for general users. The automatic cooking mode is executed in response to an automatic cooking key signal generated when the user depresses an automatic cooking key under the condition in which food to be cooked is received in a cooking chamber. For cooking menus set for the automatic cooking mode, data about the cooking method, cooking time, output level, and cooking temperature, etc. are stored in the microcomputer. When the user selects one of the set cooking menus, a cooking operation in the automatic cooking mode is carried out, based on data about the cooking conditions associated with the selected cooking menu.
However, the conventional microwave oven has a limited cooking performance because of a limited capacity of the microcomputer included therein. Furthermore, there is a limitation in increasing the number of cooking menus for the automatic cooking mode due to a limited memory capacity.
Meanwhile, in the case of a manual cooking mode, there is inconvenience because the user should manually perform several key selections to set required cooking conditions such as cooking time, cooking temperature, cooking mode, and output level, etc. Moreover, in this case, it is difficult for the user to set optimum cooking conditions.
FIG. 2A illustrates another conventional microwave oven using a bar code reader system.
As shown in FIG. 2A, this microwave oven requires a cook book B recorded with a variety of cooking information in the form of bar codes, and a bar code reader R adapted to read a bar code associated with a desired cooking menu from the cook book B.
Where a cooking operation for a desired cooking menu is to be executed in such a microwave oven, a bar code associated with the cooking menu is read from the cook book B using the bar code reader R (Step 1 in FIG. 2B). A cooking start key signal is then input (Step 2). In response to the cooking start key signal, a desired cooking operation is executed, based on the read bar code. In this case, accordingly, it is possible to achieve a precise cooking operation.
In the case of such a microwave oven using the bar code reader system, however, it is impossible for the user to directly input bar codes for desired cooking menus. For this reason, the above-mentioned bar code reader R and cook book B are additionally needed in addition to the microwave oven. This results in an increase in costs. Furthermore, the configuration of the microwave oven is complex. Also, there is an inconvenience in use.